This invention relates to tape decks for multi-track recording tapes and more particularly to the subassembly for movably supporting recording heads for precision positioning across the face of the tape.
Accurate head positioning is essential to efficient data storage and retrieval. In the case of tape used in the computer industry, refinements and improvements in tape and head designs at the present state of development allow 16 recording tracks on a tape one quarter inch wide. The design criteria require a head supporting and indexing system which is virtually free of backlash and in which the face of the recording head, as it assumes its 16 positions across the face of the tape, undergoes almost no angular or tilting movement out of the normal plane of the tape.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a movable recording head supporting and indexing assembly which is free of backlash even after extended use and which precludes angular movement of the precision recording face out of the established plane of the tape.
Another object of the invention is to provide reliable and simple adjusting means to establish the initial correct planar relationship between the recording face of the head and the normal plane of the recording tape as well as initial perpendicularity between the vertical axis of the head and the horizontal axis of the tape.